Thursday, December 22, 2011
Awesome Music
OK. A few posts ago I did a little rant about awful Catholic music. Why do Anglican and Lutheran converts sigh and moan and grin and bear it? Why do we complain about sentimental ditties, bad folk music, poor hymns and just plain awful crap music at Mass?
Have a little listen to this Christmas carol sung by the choir of King's College Cambridge. The words by Christina Rossetti are sublime and simple and moving and sweet. The music by English composer Harold Darke fits the music perfectly and the combination is, well, out of this world.
So then add to the mix that I was Chaplain to the choir school at Kings College Cambridge for two years. I worked and travelled with the choir, went to Evensong in the chapel daily, celebrated Holy Communion and lived the liturgical year in such a place, and you'll understand why maybe sometimes, just a little bit...one becomes nostalgic.
Especially at Christmas.
You would always be very welcome in the Ordinariate, father! Come on, where is that missionary, martyr spirit, looking to start an Ordinariate mission?
ReplyDeleteI'm partial to King's version of Eric Whitacre's Lux Arumuque, myself.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8jwk68RrQ0&feature=related
I don't think it's quite fair to compare the magnificence of the King's College choir with its substantially subsidized professionals to an average Catholic parish in this country. Maybe you didn't but I got that impression. Don't get me wrong. I love that choir too and had the pleasure once of attending evensong there in 1967. We have some Catholic cathedral choirs in the USA that are quite good. The one at St. James cathedral in Seattle is a good example. No governmental subsidies either. I belong to and sing in the choir of an average parish in very southern Oregon where our new and young music director is making some very welcome changes with the support of a young and very evangelistic pastor. This Christmas even we will sing our own version of the service of lessons and carols popular in Anglican churches followed by Midnight Mass with lots of plain chant and carols. The interest of parishoners in participating in the choir and music program is heartening.
ReplyDeleteI too have an Anglican background and one thing I love is the beautiful Anglican music from years past.
ReplyDeleteIt will enrich the Ordinariate greatly.
So true, Father. Even in England, at least in our parish, the standard of music makes excreble sound good. Having cOme from a Baptist church with an excellent music tradition (OK, new minister with a First in Music kinda helps but he has a great base to work with) to a Catholic church where acapella sounds better than with the 'music' and 2/3 of the congregation refuse to sing at all. Ugh! But it does suggest an alternative. OF & EF of TLM anyone? I'd say yes.
ReplyDeleteI love that Bleak Midwinter! We used to sing it down the road at Little Saint Mary's as well -- well, we didn't sing it *as well* as the choir at Kings, but it was pretty darn beautiful all the same.
ReplyDeleteArnold -- I sing in and help direct the choir in a small Catholic parish in a distinctly un-prosperous rural county in North Carolina. There are six of us in choir on good days. Here, actually, is where as an ex-Anglican I'm very grateful to have missed out on the Ordinariate and landed squarely in plain old Catholic-land: by the grace of God, our choir has been recovering what we can, given our limited resources (six people, just enough budget to pay someone to play the organ), of the sacred-music patrimony sustained and nurtured in Anglicanism. Our repertoire is small and simple but good, consisting of what I think we can pull off of the great choral tradition: chant, obviously, plus some simpler Josquin, Palestrina, etc, plus a lot of hymn settings straight out of the New English Hymnal or the Episcopal Hymnal 1982, which we can do as anthems because nobody in the parish has ever heard them before. We've just acquired the Saint Michael Hymnal, however, in which many of those good old hymns appear, so it's our hope that our singing them *for* the congregation will become a process of teaching the congregation to sing them with us. Or they can just listen. We're going to sing them anyway. So far this approach hasn't driven anyone away from the church that I can see -- our one English Mass on Sundays is increasingly packed (and with a lot of Spanish-speakers, which I think is interesting).
This, incidentally, is how the choir at Little Saint Mary's, Cambridge, began in its current incarnation -- four people singing hymns in parts, sometime around 1970. Apparently they were the only people singing, but there they were. When I got there in the early 2000s, there was a choir of 25-30, including the original four, doing essentially the same repertoire as Kings up the road, and a congregation which sang enthusiastically. Whenever I'm tempted to be too choir-nostalgic, I think of that, and it gives me hope. Everything has to start somewhere . . .
And I'm hoping to instigate a Lessons and Carols service next Advent, too. We've been doing a choral Vespers for Advent and Lent for the last several years, but I think it's going to be time to move to the next level!
Some things in this life are just classically beautiful. They sit complete and whole within us.
ReplyDeleteSuch is this.
Sally, thank you for your comments. Our choir will be accompanied by piano and cello, both played by local high schoolers who love good music. The processional Cuncti Simus will be accompanied by tympany like in ledieval times. When the cantor started singing the Introit and Communion propers, some of the parishoners at first reacted very negatively with phrases like, "I don't want us returning to the Middle Ages." So that was temporarily dropped but chant is playing a bigger role and our pastor has been tutored by the music director to chant much more of the prayers and the Preface and Doxology. The "youth Mass" held on Sunday evening has what I call "campfire music" of the sort sung at Catholic youth camps. One time the new music director filled in for the group that normally sings at that Mass using the music sung at the other English Masses and he had people coming up to him afterwards asking for more of it. I think that we often underrate the capacity and hunger of young people to accept good choral music.
ReplyDelete"Why do Anglican and Lutheran converts sigh and moan and grin and bear it?"
ReplyDeleteWell, I was raised Lutheran and went through Anglicanism on the way to entering the Catholic Church, so I guess I ought to blurt in. It's because "the fullness of truth subsists in the Catholic Church". It's because of the Real Presence. It's because it's the only thing on earth that's willing to stand against the prince of the air and that has consistently done so. It's because I read Humanae Vitae (albeit with an eye to arguing against it) and realized that the Holy Spirit had to have a hand in it.
The liturgy (and the music in the liturgy) will get right over time - though it can't be soon enough! As those who want to accommodate the Church to the world die out, good things will come about. I hope I can remain faithful until then - and until death, whichever comes first.
My favorite Christmas album of all time is "Best Loved Christmas Carols" by Kings College Choir in 2004. I listen to it year round in the car.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, on the subject of beautiful music, one of the most angelic Masses I've ever attended was sung by THIRD graders. So often we underestimate what children can do.
Have a happy Christmas Father!
Kay